In 1988, Pletnev was invited to perform at the superpower conference in Washington, D.C., where he met and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev. From this friendship, he gained the support to found two years later the Russian National Orchestra in 1990, the first non-government-supported orchestra in Russia since 1917, and became its first principal conductor, he and the orchestra made their recording debut on Virgin Classics, releasing Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony and Marche Slave in 1991. He stepped down as Principal Conductor in the late 1990s, but remained the orchestra's artistic director.[5] Mikhail Pletnev was principal guest conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland from 2008 to 2010.

In July 2010, Pletnev, a resident of Thailand, was arrested by Thai authorities in connection with allegations of child molestation.[6] Pletnev, who was released on bail, denied the charges,[7] he cancelled appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival in order to prepare his defense,[8] but the charges were dropped on 28 September.[9]

27 May 1996 – for the creation and execution of the Jubilee Music Festival "Alfred Schnittke Festival" (1994, Moscow), Third and Fourth Symphonies, the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Concert number 2 for Cello and Orchestra, Concerto Grosso № 5, three spiritual choruses ("Hail Mary Hail," "Jesus Christ" "Our Father"), the cantata "The History of Dr. Johann Faust,"

9 June 2006 – for outstanding technical skill and innovation in the field of musical art, which opened a new chapter in national and world culture

1.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi

2.
Russians
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Russians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. The majority of Russians inhabit the state of Russia, while notable minorities exist in Ukraine, Kazakhstan. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with numbers in the United States, Germany, Israel. Russians are the most numerous group in Europe. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion, the Russian language is official in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and also spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians. One is русские, which most often means ethnic Russians, another is россияне, which means citizens of Russia. The former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in, under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union. The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, translations into other languages often do not distinguish these two groups. The name of the Russians derives from the Rus people, the name Rus would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, the modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes, Northern and Southern. The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches, genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians, such Uralic peoples included the Merya and the Muromians. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records and it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. Later, both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground, the same Slavic ethnic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Krivichs, in 2010, the worlds Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia,11. 5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2. 5% living in other countries. Roughly 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, after the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees

3.
Conducting
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Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper

4.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers

5.
Arkhangelsk
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Arkhangelsk, also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the north of European Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea, the city spreads for over 40 kilometers along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the seaport of medieval and early modern Russia until 1703. A1, 133-kilometer-long railway runs from Arkhangelsk to Moscow via Vologda and Yaroslavl, and air travel is served by the Talagi Airport and a smaller Vaskovo Airport. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 348,783, down from 356,051 recorded in the 2002 Census. The arms of the city display the Archangel Michael in the act of slaying the Devil, legend states that this victory took place near where the city stands, hence its name, and that Michael still stands watch over the city to prevent the Devils return. Vikings knew the area around Arkhangelsk as Bjarmaland, ohthere of Hålogaland told circa 890 of his travels in an area by a river and the White Sea with many buildings. This was probably the later known as Arkhangelsk. According to Snorri Sturluson, Vikings led by Thorir Hund raided this area in 1027, in 1989, an unusually impressive silver treasure was found by the mouth of Dvina, right next to present-day Arkhangelsk. It was probably buried in the beginning of the 12th century, most of the findings comprised a total of 1.6 kilograms of silver, largely in the form of coins. Jewelry and pieces of jewelry come from Russia or neighboring areas, the majority of the coins were German, but the hoard also included a smaller number of Kufan, English, Bohemian, Hungarian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian coins. It is hard to place this find historically until further research is completed, there are at least two possible interpretations. It may be a treasure belonging to the society outlined by the Norse source material, generally such finds, whether from Scandinavia, the Baltic area, or Russia, are closely tied to well-established agricultural societies with considerable trade activity. Alternatively, like the Russian scientists who published the find in 1992, in the 12th century, the Novgorodians established the Archangel Michael Monastery in the estuary of the Northern Dvina River. Written sources indicate that Kholmogory existed early in the 12th century and it is not known whether the origin of this settlement was Russian, or if it goes back to pre-Russian times. In the center of the town that is there today is a large mound of building remains and river sand. The area of Arkhangelsk came to be important in the rivalry between Norwegian and Russian interests in the northern areas, from Novgorod, the spectrum of Russian interest was extended far north to the Kola Peninsula in the 12th century. However, here Norway enforced taxes and rights to the fur trade, a compromise agreement entered in 1251 was soon broken

6.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

7.
Bayan (accordion)
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The bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan. The bayan differs from western chromatic button accordions in some details of construction, Reeds are broader, Reeds are often attached in large groups to a common plate, the plates are screwed to the reed block. The melody-side keyboard is attached near the middle of the body, Reeds are generally not tuned with tremolo. Register switches may be operated with the chin on some larger models, the diminished chord row is shifted, so that the diminished G chord is where one would expect the diminished C chord in the Stradella bass system. Converter switches that go from standard preset chords to free bass are common on the larger instruments, newer instruments may feature a register where every tone played actually produces a perfect fifth. The differences in internal construction give the bayan a different tone color from Western instruments, because of their range and purity of tone, bayans are often the instrument of choice for accordion virtuosi who perform classical and contemporary classical music. Two Soviet composers of note who wrote compositions for bayan are Vladislav Zolotaryov, Russian Bayan virtuoso Stas Venglevski has premiered contemporary works by Yehuda Yannay, Anthony Galla-Rini and William Susman. In his work Drang, John Palmer has pushed the possibilities of the bayan to the limits of virtuosity. Ukrainian folk music Russian folk music Cherkasky, L. Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty

8.
Moscow Conservatory
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The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory is an educational music institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate diplomas in musical performance and musical research, the Conservatory offers various degrees including Bachelor of Music Performance, Master of Music and PhD in research. It was co-founded in 1866 as the Moscow Imperial Conservatory by Nikolai Rubinstein and it is the second oldest conservatory in Russia after the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was appointed professor of theory and harmony at its opening, since 1940 the conservatory bears his name. Some of the students now listed as being of the conservatory were in fact students of the Synodal School, the renovation of the hall was completed in 2011. Saint Petersburg Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, Moscow Conservatory, Traditions of Music Education, Art, and Science 1866–2006. Moscow, Moskovskaya Konservatoriya Publishing House,2006, loomis, George, Moscows Great Hall Turns 100, International Herald Tribune Moscow Conservatory website Moscow Conservatory website

9.
Yakov Flier
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Yakov Vladimirovich Flier was a Russian concert pianist and teacher. Flier was born in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Russia and he studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov. By the 1930s he had one of the most prominent Russian concert pianists. He mainly performed Romantic music, although he played some works by contemporary Russian composers Dmitry Kabalevsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, German Galynin, Sergei Prokofiev. He taught piano for years at the Moscow Conservatory. He was a contemporary of, and sometime rival to Emil Gilels, in the 1960s and 1970s Flier began to perform in Europe. During his concert tour in the USA he performed Sergei Rachmaninoffs Third piano concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein and he died in 1977 in Moscow, aged 65. Flier was awarded Peoples Artist of the USSR in 1966, Flier won the National USSR piano competition, The Vienna International Competition and The Eugene Ysaÿe Brussels International Competition

10.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire. Born into a family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano, in 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, in 1942, Rachmaninoff moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninoff acquired American citizenship, the piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoffs compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Rachmaninoff was born at an estate in the Novgorod province in north-western Russia. It is unclear if he was born in the estate of Oneg, near Veliky Novgorod, or Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa, the Rachmaninoffs had strong musical and military leanings. The composers grandfather on the line, Arkady Alexandrovich, was a musician. His father, Vasily Arkadyevich Rachmaninoff, was an army officer and he married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova, the daughter of a wealthy army general who gave her five estates as part of her dowry. The couple had three sons and three daughters, Rachmaninoff being their fourth child, Rachmaninoff began piano and music lessons organised by his mother at the age of four. She became impressed with her sons musical ability to recite passages from memory without playing a wrong note. Rachmaninoff later dedicated Spring Waters, Song No.32 to Ornatskaya, in 1882, Rachmaninoffs father had to auction off their Oneg estate due to his financial incompetence—the familys five estates had been reduced to one. Rachmaninoff described his father as a wastrel, a gambler, a pathological liar. The family moved to a flat in Saint Petersburg. When Rachmaninoffs course of lessons with Ornatskaya neared its end, she arranged for him to music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. That year, his sister Sofia died of diphtheria and his left the family, with their approval. In 1885, Rachmaninoffs sister Yelena died of pernicious anemia at eighteen and she was an important musical influence to Rachmaninoff who introduced him to the works of Tchaikovsky

11.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

12.
Mikhail Gorbachev
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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 and he was the countrys head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family and he graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While he was at the university, he joined the Communist Party, in 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, following the brief interregna of Andropov and Chernenko, before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in Western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level. Gorbachevs policies of glasnost and perestroika and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War. He was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and this was Gorbachevs third attempt to establish a political party, having started the Social Democratic Party of Russia in 2001 and the Union of Social Democrats in 2007. Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, into a mixed Russian-Ukrainian family of migrants from Voronezh, as a child, Gorbachev experienced the Soviet famine of 1932–1933. He recalled in a memoir that In that terrible year nearly half the population of my village, Privolnoye, starved to death. Both of his grandfathers were arrested on charges in the 1930s. His father was a combine harvester operator and World War II veteran and his mother, Maria Panteleyevna Gorbacheva, was a kolkhoz worker. He was brought up mainly by his Ukrainian maternal grandparents, in his teens, he operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law, in 1967 he qualified as an agricultural economist via a correspondence masters degree at the Stavropol Institute of Agriculture. While at the university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and soon very active within the party. Gorbachev met his wife, Raisa Titarenko, daughter of a Ukrainian railway engineer. They married in September 1953 and moved to Stavropol upon graduation and she gave birth to their only child, daughter Irina Mikhailovna Virganskaya, in 1957. Raisa Gorbacheva died of leukemia in 1999, Gorbachev has two granddaughters and one great granddaughter. Gorbachev attended the important twenty-second Party Congress in October 1961, where Nikita Khrushchev announced a plan to surpass the U. S. in per capita production within twenty years, Gorbachev rose in the Communist League hierarchy and worked his way up through territorial leagues of the party

14.
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
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The Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, the second performance, conducted by Eduard Nápravník, took place 21 days later, at a memorial concert on 6/18 November. It included some minor corrections that Tchaikovsky had made after the premiere, the first performance in Moscow was on 4/16 December, conducted by Vasily Safonov. After completing his 5th Symphony in 1888, Tchaikovsky did not start thinking about his next symphony until April 1891, the first drafts of a new symphony were started in the spring of 1891. However, some or all of the symphony was not pleasing to Tchaikovsky and it should be cast aside and forgotten. This determination on my part is admirable and irrevocable, in 1893, Tchaikovsky mentions an entirely new symphonic work in a letter to his brother, I am now wholly occupied with the new work. And it is hard for me to tear away from it. I believe it comes into being as the best of my works, I must finish it as soon as possible, for I have to wind up a lot of affairs and I must soon go to London. I told you that I had completed a Symphony which suddenly displeased me, now I have composed a new symphony which I certainly shall not tear up. The symphony was written in a house in Klin and completed by August 1893. Tchaikovsky left Klin on 19 October for the first performance in St. Petersburg, however, the composer began to feel apprehension over his symphony, when, at rehearsals, the orchestra players did not exhibit any great admiration for the new work. Nevertheless, the premiere was met with great appreciation, Tchaikovskys brother Modest wrote, There was applause and the composer was recalled, but with more enthusiasm than on previous occasions. There was not the mighty, overpowering impression made by the work when it was conducted by Eduard Nápravník, on November 18,1893, and later, wherever it was played. When the symphony was done again a couple of later, in memoriam and with subtitle in place, everyone listened hard for portents. Yet critic Brown describes the idea of the Sixth Symphony as some sort of note as patent nonsense. The Russian title of the symphony, Патетическая, means passionate or emotional, not arousing pity, Tchaikovsky considered calling it Программная but realized that would encourage curiosity about the program, which he did not want to reveal. Its French translation Pathétique is generally used in French, Spanish, English, German and it was published in reduction by Jurgenson of Moscow in 1893, and by Robert Forberg of Leipzig in 1894. Tchaikovsky dedicated the Pathétique to his nephew, Vladimir Bob Davydov, the Pathétique has been the subject of a number of theories as to a hidden program

15.
Lugano
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Lugano is a city in southern Switzerland in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino bordering Italy. It has a population of 71,500, and an urban agglomeration over 145,000, the 9th largest Swiss city, it is the largest in Ticino and largest with an Italian speaking majority outside Italy. The city lies on Lake Lugano, surrounded by the mountains of the Lugano Prealps, the toponym is first recorded in 804, in the form Luanasco, in 874 as Luano, and from 1189 as Lugano. German-language variants of the name were Lowens, Lauis, Lauwis, the etymology of the name is uncertain, suggestions include derivation from lucus grove, from a vulgar Latin lakvannus lake-dweller and from the god Lugus. The blazon of the coat of arms is Gules, a cross throughout argent. The coat of arms dates from around 1200, the four letters on the coat of arms are an abbreviation of the name Lugano. The shores of Lake Lugano have been inhabited since the Stone Age, within the modern city limits a number of ground stones or quern-stones have been found. In the area surrounding Lugano, items from the Copper Age, there are Etruscan monuments at Davesco-Soragno, Pregassona, and Viganello. Graves with jewelry and household items have been found in Aldesago, Davesco, Pazzallo, the region around Lake Lugano was settled by the Romans by the 1st century BC. There was an important Roman city north of Lugano at Bioggio, there are fewer traces of the Romans in Lugano, but several inscriptions, graves and coins indicate that some Romans lived in what would become Lugano. Other documents, dating from 804 and 844 refer to Lake Lugano as Laco Luanasco, during the fighting between Guelphs and Ghibellines and the new disputes between Como and Milan, during the 14th and 15th centuries, Lugano was the scene of clashes between opposing forces. After a long rule by the Rusca family, Lugano was freed from the domination of Como, at the same time the link between town and the valley strengthened. By 1405–06 documents attest to a vallis comunitas Lugani et, which was a body that was independent of Como. The new community included the parishes of Lugano, Agno, Riva San Vitale, in 1416 the Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti conquered the region of Lugano and the Rusca valley and made it a fief. A year later, Luganos freedoms were first documented in a series of statutes modeled on those of Como, the town was able to secure complete independence. Between 1433 and 1438 the Duke of Milan, Aloisio Sanseverino sat as a feudal lord over Lugano and he compensated the Rusca family with the ownership of Locarno. Under the reign of his heirs in the following decades rebellions and riots broke out and it was the object of continuous disputes between the Dukes of Como and Milan until it became a Swiss dominion in 1513. Swiss control lasted until 1798 when Napoleon conquered the Old Swiss Confederation, in 1746, the Agnelli brothers opened the first printing press and bookshop in Lugano

16.
Deutsche Grammophon
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Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label that was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its merger with the MCA family of labels in 1999 and it is the oldest surviving established record company. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft was founded in 1898 by German-born United States citizen Emile Berliner as the German branch of his Berliner Gramophone Company, Berliner sent his nephew Joseph Sanders from America to set up operations. Based in the city of Hanover, the company had links with the U. S, victor Talking Machine Company and the British Gramophone Company, but those links were severed at the onset of World War I. Early labels bore the legend Grammophon and the painting His Masters Voice featuring the dog Nipper, in 1941, Deutsche Grammophon was purchased by the Siemens & Halske electronics company. In 1949, Deutsche Grammophon sold the German rights of the His Masters Voice trademark to the Electrola unit of EMI, the dog and gramophone were replaced by the crown of tulips, designed by Siemens advertising consultant Hans Domizlaff. In 1962 Siemens formed a joint venture with Netherlands-based Philips to create the DGG/PPI Record Group, by this time, DGG had built a solid reputation for high-quality recording in the classical field as well as a very notable roster of contracted singers, musicians, and conductors. The fine quality both of recording and of pressings helped DGG especially succeed and attract Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra to DGG/Polydor, in 1987 Siemens sold off its interest in PolyGram, and Philips became the majority shareholder. In 1998, the Seagram Company Ltd. of Canada purchased Deutsche Grammophon, since then, Deutsche Grammophon was merged into Universal Music Group, a division of Vivendi. Deutsche Grammophon has a back catalogue of notable recordings. The company is reissuing a portion of it in its Originals series and it also released the majority of the compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen until the composer bought the rights to the recordings and re-released them on his own label. Other German composers associated with the label included Paul Hindemith and Hans Werner Henze, in 2011, Tori Amos signed to the label. The conductor most associated with the label is Herbert von Karajan, other conductors under contract included Ferenc Fricsay, Carlos Kleiber, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelik, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, and Christian Thielemann. Recent signings include Gustavo Dudamel and Myung-whun Chung

17.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 piano concertos,1 violin concerto,32 piano sonatas,16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and he lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose, many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the town of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant in the Flemish region of what is now Belgium, who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Ludwig was employed as a singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761. The portrait he commissioned of himself towards the end of his life remained proudly displayed in his grandsons rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had one son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the musical establishment and gave keyboard. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767, she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. There is no record of the date of his birth, however. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Beethovens first music teacher was his father and he later had other local teachers, the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and Franz Rovantini. Beethovens musical talent was obvious at a young age, some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Courts Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition, Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid, and then as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named Kurfürst for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783, Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethovens talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young mans musical studies. Maximilian Fredericks successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Francis, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts

18.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes

19.
The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)
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The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perraults La Belle au bois dormant, the choreographer of the original production was Marius Petipa. The premiere performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15,1890, the work has become one of the classical repertoires most famous ballets. Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg and it was later decided that Charles Perraults La Belle au bois dormant would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would compose the music for the ballet. Tchaikovsky did not hesitate to accept the commission, although he was aware that his only previous ballet, Swan Lake, the ballet scenario that Tchaikovsky worked on was based on the Brothers Grimms version of Perraults work entitled Dornröschen. In that version, the Princesss parents survived the 100-year sleep to celebrate the Princesss wedding to the Prince, other French fairy tale characters to be featured are Beauty and the Beast, Pretty Goldilocks and The White Cat. Regardless, Tchaikovsky was happy to inform the Director of the Imperial Theatre that he had great pleasure studying the work and had come away with adequate inspiration to do it justice. The choreographer was Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Ballet, Tchaikovsky worked quickly on the new work at Frolovskoye, he began initial sketches in the winter of 1888 and began orchestration on the work on 30 May 1889. Act III of the work, however, takes a break from the two motifs and instead places focus on the individual characters of the various court dances. St. Petersburg premiere Date,15 January 1890 Place, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre and this version has been performed by a number of central European ballet companies over the past two decades. By 1903, The Sleeping Beauty was the second most popular ballet in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet, in 1999, the Mariinsky Ballet reconstructed the original 1899 production, including reproductions of the original sets and costumes. Although the 1951 Kirov production by Konstantin Sergeyev is available on DVD/Video, the Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovskys longest ballet, lasting nearly four hours at full length - counting the intermissions. Without intermissions, it lasts three hours. At the premiere Tsar Alexander III summoned Tchaikovsky to the imperial box, the Tsar made the simple remark Very nice, which seemed to have irritated Tchaikovsky, who had likely expected a more favorable response. Six fairies are invited to the ceremony to bestow gifts on the child, each fairy represents a virtue or positive trait, such as beauty, courage, sweetness, musical talent, and mischief. The most powerful fairy, the Lilac Fairy, arrives with her entourage, but before she can bestow her gift, with a clap of thunder, the evil fairy Carabosse arrives with her minions. Carabosse furiously asks the King and Queen why she had not received an invitation to the christening, the blame falls to Catallabutte, the Master of Ceremonies who was in charge of the guest list

20.
Manfred Symphony
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The Manfred Symphony in B minor, Op.58, is a programmatic symphony composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between May and September 1885. It is based on the poem Manfred written by Lord Byron in 1817 and it is the only one of Tchaikovskys symphonies he completed that is not numbered and was written between the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Like the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky wrote the Manfred Symphony at the behest of the nationalist composer Mily Balakirev, Stasov had sent the program to Balakirev in 1868, hoping that Balakirev would write a symphony based on it. Balakirev did not feel capable of carrying out this project and sent the program to the French composer Hector Berlioz, Berlioz refused, claiming old age and ill health, and returned the program to Balakirev. Balakirev kept the program until he reestablished contact with Tchaikovsky in the early 1880s, the Manfred Symphony is the only programmatic symphonic work by Tchaikovsky in more than one movement. He initially considered the one of his best, and in a typical reversal of opinion later considered destroying all. The symphony was greeted with mixed reviews, some finding much to laud in it, Manfred remained rarely performed for many years, due to its length and complexity. It has been recorded with increasing frequency but is seldom heard in the concert hall. In the first ten years after graduating from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1865 Tchaikovsky completed three symphonies, after that he started five more symphony projects, four of which led to a completed symphony premiered during the composers lifetime. During his second and final trip to Russia in the winter of 1867-68 and its subject was very much to the tastes of its audiences, whose enthusiasm for the works of Lord Byron had not exhausted itself as it had begun to do in Europe. Berliozs use of a four-movement structure for writing program music intrigued many Russian musicians, one immediate consequence was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovs four movement suite Antar, written in 1868. Balakirev did not feel attracted to the idea, so he forwarded the program to Berlioz, Berlioz declined, claiming old age and ill health. He returned the program to Balakirev, who kept it, a little over a year later, Berlioz was dead, and by 1872 Balakirev was embroiled in a personal crisis that silenced him creatively. Tchaikovskys entrance into this story was strictly by circumstance, Balakirev wrote back, thanking Tchaikovsky profusely for the score. In the same letter, Balakirev suggested another project—the programme for another symphony and he presented Stasovs detailed plan, explaining it was not in his character to engage in such composition. As he explained in a letter to Tchaikovsky in October 1882, Balakirev also gave warning to avoid vulgarities in the manner of German fanfares and Jägermusik, plus instructions about the layout of the flute and percussion parts. Tchaikovsky declined the project at first and he claimed the subject left him cold and seemed too close to Berliozs work for him to manage anything but a piece that would lack inspiration and originality. You must, of course, make an effort, he exhorted, take a more self-critical approach and his importunity finally changed Tchaikovskys mind—after two years of effort

21.
Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
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Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.27 is a symphony by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in 1906–07. The premiere was conducted by the composer himself in Saint Petersburg on 8 February 1908 and its duration is approximately 60 minutes when performed uncut, cut performances can be as short as 35 minutes. The score is dedicated to Sergei Taneyev, a Russian composer, teacher, theorist, author, alongside his Piano Concerto No.2 and Piano Concerto No. 3, this remains one of the composers best known compositions. At the time his Symphony No.2 was composed, Rachmaninoff had had two seasons as the conductor of the Imperial Opera at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He considered himself first and foremost a composer and felt that the schedule was detracting from his time to compose. He then moved his wife and infant daughter to Dresden, Germany, to more time composing. The family remained in Dresden for three years, spending summers at Rachmaninoffs in-laws estate of Ivanovka and it was during this time that Rachmaninoff wrote not only his Second Symphony, but also the tone poem Isle of the Dead. Rachmaninoff was not altogether convinced that he was a gifted symphonist, at its 1897 premiere, his Symphony No.1 was considered an utter disaster, criticism of it was so harsh that it sent the young composer into a bout of depression. Even after the success of his Piano Concerto No,2, Rachmaninoff still lacked confidence in his writing. He was very unhappy with the first draft of his Second Symphony but after months of revision he finished the work, the work earned him another Glinka Award ten months later. The triumph regained Rachmaninoffs sense of self-worth as a symphonist, because of its formidable length, Symphony No.2 has been the subject of many revisions, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, which reduced the piece from nearly an hour to as little as 35 minutes. Before 1970 the piece was performed in one of its revised, shorter. Since then orchestras have used the complete version almost exclusively, although sometimes with the omission of a repeat in the first movement, the 2016 Previn / LSO CD is one of the abridged versions still available. This leads to a climax, after which a cor anglais solo leads the movement into the allegro in sonata form. Assuming the symphony is performed uncut, this includes a full repeat of the exposition. In contrast to the exposition, the development is stormy at times and moves through multiple key centres, only the first subject and central motto theme are used in the development. After a long dominant pedal, the music transitions to the recapitulation in E major, in which only the second subject is recapitulated

22.
The Seasons (Tchaikovsky)
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The Seasons, Op. 37a, is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in the northern hemisphere, the work is also sometimes heard in orchestral and other arrangements by other hands. Individual excerpts have always been popular – Troika was an encore of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Seasons was commenced shortly after the premiere of Tchaikovskys First Piano Concerto, in 1875, Nikolay Matveyevich Bernard, the editor of the St. Petersburg music magazine Nouvellist, commissioned Tchaikovsky to write 12 short piano pieces, one for each month of the year. Bernard suggested a subtitle for each months piece, Tchaikovsky accepted the commission and all of Bernards subtitles, and in the December 1875 edition of the magazine, readers were promised a new Tchaikovsky piece each month throughout 1876. The orchestration of Swan Lake was finished by 22 April, leaving the composer free to focus on other music, the epigraphs that appeared on publication of the pieces were chosen by Bernard, not by Tchaikovsky. In 1886 the publisher P. Jurgenson acquired the rights to The Seasons, Tchaikovsky did not devote his most serious compositional efforts to these pieces, they were composed to order, and they were a way of supplementing his income. Most of the pieces were in simple ABA form, but each contains a melodic masterpiece. Aleksandr Gauk arranged The Seasons for symphony orchestra in 1942, in 2011 Sergei Abir created a new orchestra version. Morton Gould retained the part for many of the pieces and orchestrated the work throughout. In 1965, Kurt-Heinz Stolze orchestrated a number of the pieces as part of the music for John Crankos ballet Onegin, more recent orchestral versions have been produced by David Matthews, Peter Breiner, and Georgii Cherkin. French composer Philippe Sarde arranged the Barcarolle as a theme for the 1988 movie The Bear. Eduard Grigoryan has arranged the work for two guitars, as a vehicle for his sons Slava and Leonard Grigoryan. Février, Carnaval At the lively Mardi Gras soon a large feast will overflow, mars, Chant de lalouette The field shimmering with flowers, the stars swirling in the heavens, the song of the lark fills the blue abyss. Avril, Perce-neige The blue, pure snowdrop — flower, the last tears over past griefs, and first dreams of another happiness. Mai, Les nuits de mai What a night, I thank my native north country. From the kingdom of ice, snowstorms and snow, how fresh, juin, Barcarolle Let us go to the shore, there the waves will kiss our feet. With mysterious sadness the stars will shine down on us, juillet, Chant du faucheur Move the shoulders, shake the arms

23.
Domenico Scarlatti
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Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, belonging to Spanish Crown, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children of the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti, domenicos older brother Pietro Filippo was also a musician. He probably first studied music under his father, other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style. He was appointed as composer and organist at the chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolos opera Irene for performance at Naples, soon afterwards, his father sent him to Venice. After this, nothing is known of Scarlattis life until 1709, later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handels skill. In Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimires private theatre and he was Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peters from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera Narciso at the Kings Theatre, according to Vicente Bicchi, Domenico Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara and he left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Seville, staying for four years, in 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain, Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known. Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid, the musicologist and harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick commented that Farinellis correspondence provides most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day. Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, at the age of 71 and his residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid. He was buried at a convent there, in Madrid, only a small fraction of Scarlattis compositions were published during his lifetime, Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi. These were well received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, the many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlattis lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlattis 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in form, and some in early sonata form

24.
Pictures at an Exhibition
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Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten pieces composed for the piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The suite is Mussorgskys most famous composition and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has become known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers. It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met artist, architect, both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. They likely met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, according to Stasovs testimony, in 1868, Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two of the pictures later featured in Pictures at an Exhibition. In 1870, Mussorgsky dedicated the song of the cycle The Nursery to Hartmann. Stasov remarked that Hartmann loved Mussorgskys compositions, and particularly liked the Scene by the Fountain in his opera Boris Godunov. Mussorgsky abandoned the scene in his original 1869 version, but at the requests of Stasov and Hartmann, the years 1873–74 are associated with the staging of Boris Godunov, the zenith of Mussorgskys career as a composer—at least from the standpoint of public acclaim. The composers triumph was overshadowed, however, by the critical drubbing he received in the press, other circumstances conspired to dampen Mussorgskys spirits. Golenishchev-Kutuzov wrote, banner was held by Mussorgsky alone, all the members had left it. Hartmanns sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russias art world, the loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair. Stasov helped organize an exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February. Mussorgsky lent to the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person, I am writing the 4th No. —the transitions are good. I want to more quickly and steadily. My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes, so far I think its well turned. The music depicts his tour of the exhibition, with each of the ten numbers of the serving as a musical illustration of an individual work by Hartmann. Five days after finishing the composition, he wrote on the page of the manuscript a tribute to Vladimir Stasov. One month later, he added an indication that he intended to have it published, in music for these illustrations, as Mussorgsky called them, he represented, children, Baba Yaga in her wooden house on chicken legs, catacombs, gates, and even rattling carts

25.
The Nutcracker
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The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmanns story The Nutcracker and it was given its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on Sunday, December 18,1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovskys opera Iolanta. Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was, major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. Tchaikovskys score has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces featured in the suite. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, for the ballet, Tchaikovsky would again join forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated on The Sleeping Beauty. The material Petipa chose was an adaptation of E. T. A, Hoffmanns story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Alexandre Dumas père called The Tale of the Nutcracker. The plot of Hoffmanns story was simplified for the two-act ballet. Hoffmanns tale contains a flashback story within its main plot titled The Tale of the Hard Nut. This had to be excised for the ballet, Petipa gave Tchaikovsky extremely detailed instructions for the composition of each number, down to the tempo and number of bars. The completion of the work was interrupted for a time when Tchaikovsky visited the United States for twenty-five days to conduct concerts for the opening of Carnegie Hall. Tchaikovsky composed parts of The Nutcracker in Rouen, France, the first performance of the ballet was held as a double premiere together with Tchaikovskys last opera, Iolanta, on 18 December 1892, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Although the libretto was by Marius Petipa, who choreographed the first production has been debated. Petipa began work on the choreography in August 1892, however, illness removed him from its completion and his assistant of seven years, although Ivanov is often credited as the choreographer, some contemporary accounts credit Petipa. The childrens roles, unlike many later productions, were performed by real children rather than adults, students of Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg, the first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success. The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent, while some critics praised DellEra on her pointework as the Sugar Plum Fairy, one critic called her corpulent and podgy. Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Columbine doll was panned by one critic as completely insipid, Alexandre Benois described the choreography of the battle scene as confusing, One can not understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards – quite amateurish, the libretto was criticized for being lopsided and for not being faithful to the Hoffmann tale. Some found the transition between the world of the first scene and the fantasy world of the second act too abrupt

26.
Dmitri Shostakovich
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Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. Shostakovichs orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti and his chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, Shostakovichs paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent, but his immediate forebears came from Siberia. When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia and he eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights, in 1903 he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native. Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began lessons with his mother at the age of nine. In 1918 he wrote a march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovskys history of music classes. Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers and he also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major achievement was the First Symphony, written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen. After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a career as concert pianist and composer. He nevertheless won a mention at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He explained the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and he later had his appendix removed in April 1927

27.
Sergei Taneyev
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Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author. Taneyev was born in Vladimir, Vladimir Oblast, Russia, to a cultured, a distant cousin, Alexander Taneyev, was also a composer, whose daughter, Anna Vyrubova, was highly influential at court. Alexander was drawn closely to the nationalist school of music exemplified by The Five and he began taking piano lessons at age five with a private teacher. His family moved to Moscow in 1865, the following year, the nine-year-old Taneyev entered the Moscow Conservatory. His first piano teacher at the Conservatory was Edward Langer, after a years interruption in his studies, Taneyev studied again with Langer. He also joined the class of Nikolai Hubert and, most importantly. In 1871, Taneyev studied piano with the Conservatorys founder, Nikolai Rubinstein, Taneyev graduated in 1875, the first student in the history of the Conservatory to win the gold medal both for composition and for performing. He was also the first person ever to be awarded the Conservatorys Great Gold Medal, the second was Arseny Koreshchenko and that summer he travelled abroad with Rubinstein. That year he made his debut as a concert pianist in Moscow playing Brahmss First Piano Concerto. In March 1876 he toured Russia with violinist Leopold Auer, Taneyev was also the soloist in the Moscow première of Tchaikovskys First Piano Concerto in December 1875. He was chosen after Gustav Kross had given a performance at the concertos Russian premiere in St Petersburg three weeks earlier. The conductor on this occasion was none other than Nikolai Rubinstein, who had famously lambasted the work less than a year earlier. Tchaikovsky was clearly more impressed by Taneyevs performance, he later asked Taneyev to be soloist in the Russian premiere of his Second Piano Concerto. After Tchaikovskys death, Taneyev edited sketches by Tchaikovsky that he completed with an Andante and Finale and premiered as a Tchaikovsky Third Piano Concerto. )Taneyev attended Moscow University for a time and was acquainted with outstanding Russian writers, including Ivan Turgenev. During his travels in Western Europe in 1876 and 1877, he met Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, César Franck and Camille Saint-Saëns, when Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, Taneyev was appointed to teach harmony. He would later also teach piano and composition and he served as Director from 1885 to 1889, and continued teaching until 1905. He had great influence as a teacher of composition and his pupils included Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Reinhold Glière, Paul Juon, Julius Conus, and Nikolai Medtner. The polyphonic interweaves in the music of Rachmaninoff and Medtner stem directly from Taneyevs teaching, Scriabin, on the other hand, broke away from Taneyevs influence

28.
Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282

29.
The Proms
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In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100. The season is a significant event in British culture, in classical music, Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as the worlds largest and most democratic musical festival. Prom is short for promenade concert, a term originally referred to outdoor concerts in Londons pleasure gardens. In fact this tradition has been revived in parks and stately homes around the UK at promenade concerts such as the Battle Proms. In the context of the BBC Proms, promming refers to the use of the areas inside the hall for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single-concert standing tickets for either the arena or gallery can be only on the day of the concert. Proms concert-goers, particularly those who stand, are referred to as prommers or promenaders. Prommers can buy full-season tickets instead for guaranteed entry to every concert in the season, some prommers are particularly keen in their attendance. The annual series of Proms continuing today had their roots in that movement and they were inaugurated on 10 August 1895 in the Queens Hall in Langham Place by the impresario Robert Newman, who was fully experienced in running similar concerts at His Majestys Theatre. Newman wished to generate an audience for concert hall music by offering low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere. He stated his aim to Henry Wood in 1894 as follows, I am going to run nightly concerts, popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music. Dr George Cathcart, an otolaryngologist, gave financial backing to Newman for the series on condition that Henry Wood be employed as the sole conductor, Wood, aged 26, seized this opportunity and built the Queens Hall Orchestra as the ensemble specially devoted to performing the promenade concerts. This coincided with the adoption of lower pitch by other leading orchestras. Although the concerts gained a following and reputation, Newman went bankrupt in 1902. Wood received a knighthood in 1911, in 1914 anti-German feeling led Speyer to surrender his role, and music publishers Chappell & Co. took control of the concerts. Although Newman remained involved in planning, it was Woods name which became most closely associated with the Proms. As conductor from the first concert in 1895, Sir Henry was largely responsible for building the repertoire heard as the series continued from year to year. While including many popular and less demanding works, in the first season there were substantial nights devoted to Beethoven or Schubert, distinguished singers including Sims Reeves and Signor Foli appeared

30.
Edinburgh International Festival
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The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual festival of performing arts in Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks in August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music, theatre, opera, the festival also hosts a series of visual art exhibitions, talks and workshops. Bing had looked at several English cities before shifting his focus to Scotland and settling on Edinburgh, certain preconditions were obviously required of such a centre. It should be a town of size, capable of absorbing and entertaining anything between 50,000 and 150,000 visitors over a period of three weeks to a month. It should, like Salzburg, have considerable scenic and picturesque appeal and it should be set in a country likely to be attractive to tourists and foreign visitors. It should have sufficient number of theatres, concert halls and open spaces for the staging of a programme of an ambitious. Greatly daring but not without confidence I recommended Edinburgh as the centre, wood approached Falconer, who enthusiastically welcomed the initiative on behalf of the city. As it was too late to finalise arrangements for 1946, plans were made for the following year, the first International Festival took place between 22 August and 11 September 1947. The Festival has since taken place every August, the British Armys desire to showcase itself during the Festival period led to the independent staging of the first Edinburgh Military Tattoo, featuring displays of piping and dancing, in 1950. This annual event has come to be regarded as an part of the official festival. In 1999, the Festival opened a new box office and information centre in The Hub. The Edinburgh International Festival was brought forward to coincide with the Fringe in 2015, the principal venues of the Festival are, The Edinburgh Playhouse Usher Hall Festival Theatre, primarily used for opera and ballet productions. Collectively, the group is referred to as the Edinburgh Festival. Most notable of these is the Edinburgh Fringe, which started as an offshoot of the International Festival and has grown to be the worlds largest arts festival. List of opera festivals Bruce, G. Festival in the North, the Edinburgh International Festival,1947 –1996

31.
Boris Yeltsin
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Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the reforms as one of Gorbachevs most powerful political opponents. During the late 1980s, Yeltsin had been a member of the Politburo, no one had resigned from the Politburo before. This act branded Yeltsin as a rebel and led to his rise in popularity as an anti-establishment figure, on 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. However, Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic. He vowed to transform Russias socialist economy into a capitalist market economy and implemented economic shock therapy, price liberalization, due to the sudden total economic shift, a majority of the national property and wealth fell into the hands of a small number of oligarchs. The well-off millionaire and billionaire oligarchs likened themselves to 19th century robber barons, in October 1993, troops loyal to Yeltsin stopped an armed uprising outside of the parliament building, leading to a number of deaths. Yeltsin then scrapped the existing Russian constitution, banned political opposition, on 31 December 1999, under enormous internal pressure, Yeltsin announced his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of his chosen successor, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin left office widely unpopular with the Russian population, Yeltsin kept a low profile after his resignation, though he did occasionally publicly criticise his successor. Yeltsin died of heart failure on 23 April 2007. Boris Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, Talitsky District, Sverdlovsk, USSR, growing up in rural Sverdlovsk, he studied at the Ural State Technical University, and began his career in the construction industry. In 1934 Nikolai Yeltsin was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to hard labour in a gulag for three years, Nikolai remained unemployed for a period of time and then worked again in construction. His mother, Klavdiya Vasilyevna Yeltsina, worked as a seamstress, Boris studied at Pushkin High School in Berezniki. In 1949 he was admitted to the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk, majoring in construction, the subject of his degree paper was Construction of a Mine Shaft. From 1955 to 1957 he worked as a foreman with the building trust Uraltyazhtrubstroy, from 1957 to 1963 he worked in Sverdlovsk, and was promoted from construction site superintendent to chief of the Construction Directorate with the Yuzhgorstroy Trust. In 1963 he became chief engineer, and in 1965 head of the Sverdlovsk House-Building Combine, responsible for sewerage and he joined the ranks of the CPSU nomenklatura in 1968 when he was appointed head of construction with the Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee. In 1975 he became secretary of the committee in charge of the regions industrial development. In 1976 the Politburo of the CPSU promoted him to the post of the first secretary of the CPSU Committee of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Yeltsin was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 17 March 1961 to 13 July 1990, and a nomenklatura member from 1968

32.
Vladimir Putin
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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician. Putin is the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012 and he was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, President from 2000 to 2008, and again Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. During his second term as Prime Minister, he was the Chairman of the ruling United Russia Party, born in Leningrad, Putin studied German in high school and speaks the language fluently. He studied Law at the Saint Petersburg State University, graduating in 1975, Putin was a KGB Foreign Intelligence Officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1991 to enter politics in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsins administration, rising quickly through the ranks and becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999, when Yeltsin resigned. Putin won the subsequent 2000 Presidential election by a 53% to 30% margin, thus avoiding a runoff with his Communist Party of the Russian Federation opponent and he was re-elected President in 2004 with 72% of the vote. During Putins first presidency, the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, the growth was a result of the 2000s commodities boom, high oil prices, and prudent economic and fiscal policies. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third presidential term in 2008. The 2008 Presidential election was won by Dmitry Medvedev, who appointed Putin Prime Minister, in September 2011, after presidential terms were extended from four to six years, Putin announced he would seek a third term as president. He won the March 2012 Presidential election with 64% of the vote, under Putins leadership, Russia has scored poorly on both the Democracy index and the Corruption index. Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings during his career. In 2007, he was the Time Person of the Year, in 2015, he was #1 on the Times Most Influential People List. Forbes ranked him the Worlds Most Powerful Individual every year from 2013 to 2016, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Putina. His birth was preceded by the death of two brothers, Viktor and Albert, born in the mid-1930s, Albert died in infancy and Viktor died of diphtheria during the Siege of Leningrad. Putins mother was a worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy. Early in World War II, his father served in the battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the army and was severely wounded in 1942. On 1 September 1960, Putin started at School No.193 at Baskov Lane and he was one of a few in the class of approximately 45 pupils who was not yet a member of the Young Pioneer organization

33.
47th Annual Grammy Awards
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The 47th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13,2005 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were hosted by Queen Latifah, and televised in the United States by CBS and they recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Ray Charles, whom the event was dedicated in memory of, posthumously won five Grammy Awards while his album, Genius Loves Company, usher received eight nominations and won three including Best Contemporary R&B Album for his diamond selling album Confessions. Britney Spears received her first Grammy of Best Dance Recording for her 2004 smash hit Toxic, the Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Eve, Maroon 5, Los Lonely Boys and Franz Ferdinand performed a medley together. Usher performed with James Brown Kanye West performed Jesus Walks, bold type indicates the winner out of the list of nominees. Ray Charles five Grammy wins is the record for most posthumous Grammy Awards won in one night and he is the first artist to win a posthumous Album of the Year Grammy since John Lennon in 1982. In 2000 he won the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year for engineering Luis Miguels Amarte Es Un Placer

34.
Martha Argerich
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Martha Argerich is an Argentine virtuoso pianist, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the second half of the 20th century. Argerich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and her paternal ancestors were Catalans based in Buenos Aires since the 18th century. The provenance of the name Argerich is Catalonia, Spain and she started playing the piano at age three. At the age of five, she moved to teacher Vincenzo Scaramuzza, Argerich gave her debut concert in 1949 at the age of eight. The family moved to Europe in 1955, where Argerich studied with Friedrich Gulda in Austria, juan Perón, then the president of Argentina, made their decision possible by appointing her parents to diplomatic posts in the Argentine Embassy in Vienna. She later studied with Stefan Askenase and Maria Curcio, Argerich also seized opportunities for brief periods of coaching with Madeleine Lipatti, Abbey Simon, and Nikita Magaloff. In 1957, at sixteen, she won both the Geneva International Music Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition, within three weeks of each other and her greatest influence was Gulda, with whom she studied for 18 months. Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of 8, playing a concerto by Mozart, Argerich rose to international prominence when she won the seventh International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1965, at age 24. In that same year, she debuted in the United States in Lincoln Centers Great Performers Series. In 1960, she had made her first commercial recording, which included works by Chopin, Brahms, Ravel, Prokofiev, in 1967, she recorded Chopins Polonaise, Op.53. Argerich has often remarked in interviews of feeling lonely on stage during solo performances, since the 1980s, she has staged few solo performances, concentrating instead on concertos and, in particular, chamber music, and collaborating with instrumentalists in sonatas. She is noted especially for her recordings of 20th-century works by such as Rachmaninoff, Messiaen. One notable compilation pairs Rachmaninoffs Piano Concerto No.3 with Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No.1, Argerich is also famous for her interpretation of Prokofievs Piano Concerto No. 3, Ravels Piano Concerto in G, and Bachs Partita No.2 in C minor, Argerich has also promoted younger pianists, both through her annual festival and through her appearances as a member of the jury at international competitions. She has supported artists including Gabriela Montero, Mauricio Vallina, Sergio Tiempo, Gabriele Baldocci, Christopher Falzone. Argerich is president of the International Piano Academy Lake Como and performs each year at the Lugano Festival and she also created and has been General Director of the Argerich Music Festival and Encounter in Beppu, Japan, since 1996. Her aversion to the press and publicity has resulted in her out of the limelight for most of her career. Nevertheless, she is recognized as one of the greatest pianists of her time

35.
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin
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He is also a citizen of Lithuania and Spain. Shchedrin was born in Moscow into a musical family—his father was a composer and teacher of music theory and he studied at the Moscow Choral School and Moscow Conservatory under Yuri Shaporin and Yakov Flier. He was married to the well-known ballerina Maya Plisetskaya from 1958 until her death in 2015, shchedrins early music is tonal, colourfully orchestrated and often includes snatches of folk music, while some later pieces use aleatoric and serial techniques. In the west the music of Shchedrin has won popularity mainly through the work of Mstislav Rostropovich who has several successful recordings. He composed 24 Preludes and Fugues after he heard those of Shostakovich, also remarkable is his Polyphonic Notebook. The third Concerto for Orchestra is based on old music of Russian provincial circuses, Concerto 4, Khorovody, was written in 1989, and Concerto 5, Four Russian Songs, was written in 1998. As well as a distinguished career, Shchedrin is himself a virtuoso pianist and organist. At a remarkable concert on 5 May 1974 Shchedrin performed the feat of appearing as soloist in all three of his piano concertos, one after the other. The concert, with the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov was recorded and released on LP, on June 11–14,2008 Shchedrin Days took place in Armenia with the participation of Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya as honorary guest. Invited by Walter Fink, he was the 19th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2009 and he and his wife attended the concerts which included his Russian liturgy The Sealed Angel for choir and flute, performed in Eberbach Abbey. The premiere of a German version of his opera Lolita was performed as the night of the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden in a production of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Not Love Alone, opera in three acts with epilogue, First performance on 25 December 1961 in Moscow by the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, Y. Dead Souls, opera in three acts, First performance on 7 June 1977 in Moscow by the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus and Orchestra, Y. Lolita, opera in three acts after Vladimir Nabokovs novel, First performance,14 December 1994 in Stockholm by the Royal Opera of Stockholm, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ann-Marget Petterson, John Conklin. The Enchanted Wanderer, opera for the stage for mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass, mixed chorus. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to Lorin Maazel, First performance on 19 December 2002 in New York by the New York Philharmonic, New York Choral Artists, Lorin Maazel. Boyarina Morozova, choral opera in two parts for four soloists, mixed chorus, trumpet, timpani and percussion, text from The Life of the Archpriest Awwakum by himself and The Life of Boyarina Morozova. First performance,30 October 2006 in the Moscow Conservatory in a directed by Boris Tevlin

36.
Sergei Prokofiev
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Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofievs greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed works in that genre, including The Gambler. Prokofievs one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the decade in Europe. During that time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, in the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofievs ballets and operas to be staged in America and western Europe. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, the Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace. Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka, a rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Sergei Alexeyevich Prokofiev, was an agronomist, Prokofievs mother, Maria, came from a family of former serfs who had been owned by the Sheremetev family, under whose patronage serf-children were taught theatre and arts from an early age. She was described by Reinhold Glière as a woman with beautiful. Who knew how to create an atmosphere of warmth and simplicity about her, after their wedding in the summer of 1877, the Prokofievs had moved to a small estate in the Smolensk governorate. Eventually Sergei Alexeyevich found employment as a engineer, employed by one of his former fellow-students, Dmitri Sontsov. By seven, he had learned to play chess. At the age of nine, he was composing his first opera, The Giant, as well as an overture, unable to arrange that, Tanayev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev. The first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofievs insistence, the following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition. By 1904, his mother had decided instead on Saint Petersburg, glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofievs mother to have her son apply for admission to the Conservatory. He passed the tests and enrolled that year. Several years younger than most of his class, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant and he also shared classes with the composers Boris Asafyev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, the latter becoming a relatively close and lifelong friend. As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions

37.
Lenin Komsomol Prize
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Lenin Komsomol Prize was a Soviet annual award for the best works in science, engineering, literature or art carried out by young authors of age not exceeding 33 years. Komsomol was the name of The Communist Union of Youth. The award was instituted by the Central Committee of VLKSM in March 1966, the reason for the selection of this particular age threshold is unclear. The coincidence of the threshold of 33 with the age of Christ was a matter of jokes. Symbolically, the first winner of award in the Soviet Union was writer Nikolay Ostrovsky. In addition to the prize, Union republics had republican versions of the prize, named respectively, e. g. Belarus Lenin Komsomol Prize

39.
People's Artist of the USSR
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Peoples Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union. The term is used to translate two Russian language titles, Народный артист СССР, awarded in performing arts and Народный художник СССР. Each Soviet Republic, as well as the Autonomous Republics, had an award held previously by virtually every receiver of the higher title of Peoples Artist of the USSR. As this title was granted by the government, honorees were afforded certain privileges, accordingly, artists and authors who expressed criticism of the Communist Party were seldom granted such recognition, if not outright censored. The title was bestowed for exceptional achievements in the arts in the Soviet Union. Its recipients included many of the composers, dancers, singers, film. In all, there were 1010 recipients of the award, the title was introduced in 1936, replacing the earlier title of Peoples Artist of the Republic. The first recipients of the title were Konstantin Stanislavski, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Ivan Moskvin, Antonina Nezhdanova, Boris Shchukin, Kulyash Baiseitova, the last persons to be honoured with the title were Sofia Pilyavskaya and Oleg Yankovsky. Originally, the title was bestowed on theatre actors, ballet dancers, gradually, it came to be bestowed upon film actors, composers, violinist, pop singers, comedians, and even circus performers such as Natalya Durova and Oleg Popov. Normally, a person was named the Peoples Artist of the USSR after 40 years of age, the youngest female persons to receive this title were Kazakh opera singers Kulyash Baiseitova and Halima Nasyrova. The youngest men were Uzbek singer Batir Zakirov, followed by the Azerbaijani baritone operatic, among the actors, the youngest recipient was Sergey Bondarchuk. The youngest actress to receive the title was Yuri Andropovs daughter-in-law, Lyudmila Chursina, as of 2009, the earliest living recipient is Turkmen opera singer Maya Kuliyeva. The title of Peoples Painter of the Soviet Union was awarded for achievements in certain visual arts, painting, sculpture, drawing. The lesser title of Meritorious Painter of the Soviet Union was also awarded for achievement in these fields

40.
State Prize of the Russian Federation
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The State Prize of the Russian Federation is a state honorary prize established in 1992 as the successor for the USSR State Prize following the breakup of the Soviet Union. The award consists of a cash prize amounting to 5 million Russian rubles, a medal, if a number of coauthors equally contributed to a prize-winning work the prize is divided among no more than three authors. The medal for the State Prize was developed by the artist Yevgeny Ukhnalyov, the design is based on the Coat of arms of Russia. It shows a gold double-headed eagle with a scepter and a Globus cruciger with a red shield showing St. George with the dragon. The eagle is crowned by two small and one large crown and put on a silver wreath consisted of palm and laurel branches joined by a red ribbon, the design was adopted in 2005. Complete listings are available on Russian Wikipedia, For example, Laureates of the State Prize of the Russian Federation for 1992, anatoly Savin Literature and the arts Andrey Logvin Literature and the arts Yelena Panova - for her role in Border. Afanasiev, S. Dodonov, Anatolii Zasov, Valerij Polyachenko, Olga Silchenko, Evgenii Snezhkin, Oleg Khoruzhii - for prediction and discovery of new structures in spiral galaxies. Humanitarian work Jacques Chirac - President of France Science and Technology Vladimir Arnold - Russian mathematician, Alexey Khokhlov - Polymer scientist, Andrey Zaliznyak - Russian linguist. Literature and the arts Alisa Freindlich - actress of the Tovstonogov Theater in Saint Petersburg, Andrey Kovalchuk - Russian sculptor, Yevgeny Kaspersky - anti-virus software inventor. Yuri Oganessian for the opening of the new field of stability of superheavy elements, anatoly Derevyanko for outstanding discoveries and works in the field of ancient history in Eurasia and the formation of anatomically modern humans

41.
Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
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The Order For Merit to the Fatherland is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on March 2,1994 by Presidential Decree 442, until the re-establishment of the Order of St. Andrew in 1998, it was the highest Order of the Russian Federation, though it is still the highest Civilian decoration of the state. The Order of St. Andrew decoration is given to Military personnel only, the statute of the Order was modified on January 6,1999 by Presidential Decree 19 and again on September 7,2010 by Presidential Decree 1099. The Order For Merit to the Fatherland is a mixed civilian, the highest of the four classes is the Order I class, the lowest being the Order IV class. These classes are awarded sequentially from the IV to the I class, in exceptional cases, the President of the Russian Federation may decide to award the Order For Service to the Fatherland to persons not previously awarded state awards of the Russian Federation. Soldiers receiving the Order For Merit to the Fatherland for distinction in combat will receive the Order with Swords, the order has a collar and four classes. The collar is the insignia of the President of the Russian Federation. The four classes of the Order are individually identified by the size, cross, Is a silver-gilt ruby-enamelled cross pattée bearing the gilt state emblem of the Russian Federation on its obverse. On the reverse of the cross is a circular medallion surrounded by the motto BENEFIT, HONOUR, in the center of the medallion, the year of the establishment of the Order 1994. On the reverse of the arm of the cross, laurel leaves. The cross for the Order I class measures 60mm across and is affixed to a 100mm wide red sash worn over the right shoulder. The cross of the II and III classes measures 50mm across and is worn on a 45mm wide red neck ribbon for the II class, the cross for the IV class measures 40mm across and hangs from a standard pentagonal mount covered by a red 24mm wide ribbon. Star, The star of the Order is eight pointed, 82mm across and of highly polished silver. At its center on the obverse if a circular medallion bearing the gilt state emblem of the Russian Federation. Around the medallion, a red enameled band with the motto of the Order BENEFIT, HONOUR, the reverse has the serial number of the Order engraved on the lower arm. A cavalier of an order is an individual who as received a grade of an order, a full cavalier of an order is an individual who has sequentially earned every class of that order. The individuals listed below are among those who have been so honoured, Awards and decorations of the Russian Federation The Commission on State Awards to the President of the Russian Federation

The Sleeping Beauty (Russian: Спящая красавица / Spyashchaya krasavitsa) is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, …

Original cast members costumed for Act I. At center is Carlotta Brianza as Aurora. (Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1890)

The bad fairy Carabosse by Léon Bakst, who created the décor and about 300 costume designs in 2 months for Diaghilev's lavish 1921 production of The Sleeping Beauty in London.

Carlotta Brianza as Princess Aurora and Pavel Gerdt as Prince Désiré, costumed for the Grand Procession of Act III in Petipa's original production of The Sleeping Beauty. (Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1890)